Point of Honesty
by Angel Gidget
Summary: AU in wich Mystique is evil, Logan is good, and Rogue is a 10-year old girl in need of a family. My 1st fic in the comics section. [The last chapter and final annoying author's notes are now up.]
1. Virus

Story Notes: 1)Any of y'all who have read my previous work, know that I don't hate Mystique. She's Rogue's mother regardless of the dysfunctionality of their relationship. But for the sake of my AU, she's gotta be bad. So please forgive any Mystique bashing. 2)On Logan, this fic is my reply to the movie and how I think their relationship should be. I feel he is better as a mentor or father figure to her than anything else. And 3) I wrote this fic a long time ago and am just submitting it now. So that is why the writing style is so different and why it's superior anyway. ^-^  
Disclaimer: No, I don't own them yet. Yes, you may give them to me for a birthday present.  
  
((Point of Honesty_Chapter 1: Virus)) by Christy S.  
  
The door was a foot thick; consisting of five layers of re-enforced steel. Adamantium claws sliced through the thing like butter. The scraggley, dark haired intruder was moving quickly, like a predator racing after lost prey.   
He was in her office now, right in the center of the burried secret base. The red-headed, blue-skinned witch was sitting at her desk. By pretending not to know what had happened, she was mocking him. He spoke between growls, "Mystique, I'm gonna say this once and ya better listen. My wife's got your virus. Now give me the cure, or I do to yer throat what I did to yer door."  
Raven Darkholme, better know as the shapeshifter Mystique, leaned back in her desk chair and smiled. "You'd best watch yourself, Logan. After all, we *are* in the company of children." She watched his gaze shift from her to the young girl at her side.  
The girl couldn't have been more that 10. Her short reddish-brown hair had a white streak running through it. Her green eyes were wide in fear at the savage temperament of this new enemy.  
Logan reluctantly agreed with the woman. "You, kid, OUT NOW!" The child was quaking all over, but still wouldn't move.  
Mystique intervened, "Rogue, you may leave us." At her instructress's word, Rogue bolted from the office like a frightened rabit.  
Mystique turned to face her visitor. By distracting him with Rogue's presence, she managed to calm him down. But she knew that he would not be swayed from his mission. She opened a cabinet of her desk and pulled out a thin personal file. Not much was known about the man's history, but she proceeded to relate the important facts.  
"Your name is Logan. Your wife is the Lady Mariko Yashida. She has contracted the Flatscan Virus. It is barely detectable until it reaches the final stages and is only found in normal humans; not mutants like you and me. I developed the virus to 'even the score' with some competitors of mine. I really wasn't aware that it would spiral out of control the way it did. But that's why I invented the antidote, which you want and I will give you for a price. That price is the Madripoor Jewel."  
"That hunk of don't mean anything t'me. Logan replied.  
"Well, it means something to *me*, and the moment I have the jewel in my hand, you will have the antidote in yours."  
"Ya want it bad, don't ya?" He reached out his hand, sheathing his claws. "It's yours then. We gotta deal." They shook hands to seal the pact.   
  
  
I'm going to use reverse psychology on you now. See that bluish button? Don't touch it! Don't you dare touch it! I'm telling you you're not supposed to do that! No! Don't do it ! Don't!... ^-^ 


	2. Betrayal

Disclaimer: No, I don't own them. Yes, you may give them to me for a birthday present.  
  
  
((Point of Honesty_Chapter 2: Betrayal))  
  
When Mystique retreated to the back of her base, in the casual company of the brotherhood who worked for her, she would sometimes permit her underlings to refer to her as Raven. This was so, providing she was in a good mood. It was rare, but this was one of those times.  
The Brotherhood of Mutants was a mutant terrorist group that Raven had built with the help of her deseased friend, Irene Addler. All the members surrounded her now as she sat in the only comfortable chair in the room. The rest could either stand or sit at her feet.  
She related her earlier conversation with Logan to her followers, looking forward to when she could deliver the jewel to the Brotherhood's current employer. Although Raven enjoyed random acts of violence on the normal human populace, she and her brotherhood could be bought, at a price, for illegal transactions that required certain resorces or skills.  
Her presentation of the day's events was interrupted by Rogue's Mississippi-raised accent, "Ah don' get it, Ray. How'd y'all know that Mariko would get sick, an' Logan would come bring'in the jewel ta you?"  
"Because, darling," Raven answered with false sweetness, "I invented the Flatscan Virus for the purpose of killing Lady Mariko."  
Raven noticed the shock on the young southerner's face and continued, "It was before you even joined us, Rogue, that I first attempted to secure the Madripoor Jewel. I was employed by the same entity that we are now. The stone does not belong to Logan. It is an heirloom of Lady Mariko. I had crept into the great house as silently as would a snake. My hands were nearly upon the jewel when her guardian samurai attacked me. They slashed me to pieces and left me for dead at the bottom of a hill. I have neither forgotten or forgiven the incident."  
Rogue was confused. "But you were tryin' ta steal from her. Don't that make *you* th' evil one?"  
Raven rolled her eyes. "That, Rogue, is irrelevant. You must learn to think differently here. I did not lie. It is indeed the cure to the Flatscan Virus that Logan is taking to the Lady now. What he does not know is that the cure to my masterpiece is as lethal as the virus itself! At least it will be, to someone of Mariko's poor phisical strength. She will never survive the energy drainig effects...  
  
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Lady Mariko died six hours after the antidote's injection. The doctor explained to Logan that the serum had tested positively as the strange disease's cure, but she had not had enought strength to heal. Logan barely listened to him.  
He never had a problem with healing. From before he could remember, his mutant genes ha dalways enabled him to heal whether from a cut on his finger or a bullet through is heart.  
But this was not a tangible bullet wound. This was death. The death that Logan was now prepared to introduce a different woman to. A woman named Mystique. She had seen what his claws could do to flesh and bone.  
And as he stalked away, he didn't even feel any triumph in the knowledge that the Madripoor Jewel she had accepted from him had been a fake one.  
  
  
Yes, I know y'all are going to hate me for what I did to Mariko. But at least she and Logan get to spend some time married together before it happened. And for the record, I'm not familiar w/Mariko so I probably wouldn't have written her very well, anyway. So yes, even if it's only to complain about me killing her, please review anyway. (and keep in mind that I might not kill her these days, I 1st wrote this a long time ago, y'know.) 


	3. Better than Vengance

Author's Notes: Don't worry ya'll there's a lot more of Rogue this chapter!^-^ Unfortunately, it's also the last chapter :( However, I do have some plans to write a sequel to this story. I have an outline for a plot, but no actualy writings yet. I'm thinking that I'd like to co-write it w/someone else. It's gonna take place about 5-7 years later, is gonna be *a lot* longer, and is gonna have some major Rogue/Gambit. And if you know who he is, it's gonna have Emile Lapin in it! However, I don't feel ready to write something as big as the plans are, so If anyone is interested in co-writing the sequel w/me, just drop an Email. If I'm overwhelmed by replies I can just choose one. Keep in mind that I have most of my plot, I just need a scripter.   
Discaimer: For lack of a wittier disclaimer, I do not own anything. (not even the Madripoor Jewel)  
  
  
((Point of Honesty_Chapter: 3))  
  
It had taken Lady Mariko six hours to die, but only one hour to write a last will and testament. Much of it was personal and most of it had to do with the Madripoor Jewel. She refused to die leaving her husband in ignorance of the stone's importance.  
Logan too, had told the truth. the jewel meant nothing to him. It was against his nature to be dishonest, preferring the blunt truth. It was only at his wife's request that he had agreed to substitute the gem at the last moment with a counterfeit.  
But even if he had provided Mystique with the true Madripoor Jewel, it would not have done her much good anyway. Few things did anyone any good when someone like Logan wanted their blood.  
Through shady dealings and nearly untraceable associates, he had managed to track the terrorist's base of opperations. He had far less deadly intent back then. Broken out of his train of thought, his heightened senses detected a familiar scent, a scent that made him hesitate, that had kept him in check before...  
  
***************************************  
  
Mystique cursed her own negligence for having been careless with the installation of the spy cameras. Pride had led her to believe that the surveillance was unnecessary and that her base was practically invisible. That she could only be contacted by the most roundabout and sophisticated ways.  
Logan had proved her wrong. He had proved that there were knowing sources that even she had been unaware of. Sources that could leak data, given the right incentive. What better incentive than adamantium claws directed at the base of the throat?  
Believing that she and her band were untouchable, Mystique had sparsely distributed the security cameras. So, though she had seen him enter, she could not see how deep he had penetrated into their home.  
She glanced over at his personal file. It had held much more information than she had related to him during their original conversation. There had been information on his nature and habits. There had been telling of the numbers killed when he was enraged; of the deaths tolled when he had lost himself in the violence. Logan's dark side was his beastial nature. He was forever blancing the animal and the man. Friends and family were what made him a man. Enemies and betrayal, such as Mystique's, were what made him revert to a savage predator.  
If he should invade the base and take lave of his senses in this way, how could the   
Brotherhood hope to survive? All her and Irene's life's work would be destroyed. The information and spoils she had stored would be ransacked, and her followers would be sliced limb from limb.  
'Would it not be better to end it all quickly and take him down in the process?' The thought took her by surprise, even as her eyes wondered toward the base control panel and the self-destruct button.  
  
*********************************  
  
"Rogue?" He had forgotten about the child.  
Logan sheathed his claws. He had come here to kill; but Rogue was an innocent, and who knew how many more like her were being kept in this place?  
Rogue looked up. She was perfectly still except for her eyes, wich serched wildly for the next exit. If she tried to run, would he catch her? If she stood her ground, would he cut her down?  
"Easy, darlin', I'm not gonna hurt you."  
She blurted the first question that came to her mind.  
"Then who *are* ya gonna hurt?"  
"Who do you think?"  
A tear escaped her eye. Apparently she did know what Mistique had done. But there was still hope. The act horrified her. Thus, the shapeshifter couldn't have corrupted her completely.  
Logan sat down. He felt the blood-lust that had been growing in him subside. If he could get Rogue to calm down, she could tell him about the occupants of the base.  
"How many of ya are there?"  
"Huh?"  
"Kids like you. How many of you are here?"  
"Ain't no one like me."  
"What do ya mean, darlin'?"  
"Ah'm a mutant. Ah absorb othah people's energy, an' powers, an'... an' memories." She knew he was supposed to be the enemy. But he was th efirst person to listen to her since she came to this wretched place, so she continued.  
"When Ah discovered mah power, Ah ran away. Raven found me in th' woods where Ah holed up. She... she said she had a place where Ah could come an' be accepted. Said that it was a place where mutants could strike back. Ah b'lieved her. That was 'bout a month ago."  
Silence.  
"An' do ya believe her now?"  
Rogue lifted her head to face him. Why was he asking her this? Wasn't he supposed to slit her throat and gut her? Wasn't he supposed to be growling like some sort of monster? Wasn't that what Mysique had told her? Exactly. That's what Mystique had *told* her.  
Logan continued.  
"The woman's played you, girl. S'obvious by the look on yer face that this place wasn't what you were told it was gonna be. An' mutant terrorists like Mystique don't just go for strolls in the middle of the woods. She was out lookin' fer ya. Or maybe to be specific, yer power."  
Rogue frowned. She was beginning to comprehend, but remained silent.  
"Ya say you absorb people? Well, by draggin' you along, Mystique can infiltrate inta the highest government security. If she can't get anyone t'trust her an' give her the info she wants, she c'n have you suck it out of 'em. 'Cause ta her, darlin', knowledge is power."  
Rogue hung her head once again. He'd related it all. There was really nothing more to be said.  
  
********************************  
  
Raven Darkholme attempted to ignore the sweat on her brow. She hated being afraid and she loathed being ignorant. As Mystique, she would have surely condemned any one of her brotherhood for procrastinating on such a simple task. Press the button, flick the lever, and wait for the end to come. There was still a problem. An excuse, really, that she made for herself. She couldn't tell how far Logan had gotten.  
The detonation occured in a chain reaction. If he was still in the upper levels of the base, he would have time to escape. This of course, she reprimanded herself, was silly. The way he was moving on the screen, he must have reached her office by now.  
As a last reassurance, she looked to a framed picture on the wall. It was of her long gone friend, Irene, with whom she had begun the brotherhood.  
"Well, Destiny," as she had often called her, "might as well exit this measly little planet with some sense of style, right?" And with that, she pressed the button, flicked the lever, and felt the end come.  
  
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Rogue was still crying with Logan next to her when she felt the explosion beneath her. She began to panic.   
"She's blowin' up th' base! Ahdon'tbelieveit! She's blowin' up th' base!  
"I'll take yer word on that, darlin'." replied Logan.  
Guessing by the way Rogue stood still with shock, Logan figured she wouldn't be getting out on her own. Carefully avoiding her skin, he picked her up and ran for both their lives.  
When they had gotten far enough distance away, Logan turned to survey the damage.  
"Woman certainly goes out with a bang, don't she?" His time spent on Rogue had cost him his revenge. Or had it? Wasn't this Mystique's only young protege that he was holding now? Hadn't he saved at least one from the terrorist's dark purpose?  
He looked down at the girl. She was still crying over the only home she had ever known since discovering her abilities. It wasn't one worth crying over. He'd have to show her a better one, then. He would have to learn to conquer his inner beast all over again for her. As he had done for Mariko's sake. With these last thoughts, he led her away from the ruins.  
  
  
And there ya have it! I decided to up the rating to PG because so many characters were dying; and I have now gone through all the blood, sweat, and tears of completely re-typing this thing even though I wrote it long ago. Now you can just lightly move your clicker over to that little button and *gasp* *wheeze* press the thing. Happy typing! ^.~ 


End file.
